New Projects Underway in the Register of Deeds Office

Posted on 4/14/2010
by
Norman Holleman

The Forsyth County Register of Deeds is now redacting our internet records that are online. Redaction is the “blacking out” of the confidential text in a document to be produced. In an Automated Litigation Support program, redaction is usually done by way of an overlay (so the original document image is not actually altered).

Each employee is given a real estate book to look through and find social security and driver’s license numbers that are in our recorded documents. The employee makes a note as to where these numbers are so that our scanning department can go in and redact these numbers. As they complete a book, they are issued another book to look over. By having our employees do this work in house, we save over $650,000 (the price quoted to us by a company that does this work for counties).

We are also removing social security numbers from uncertified copies. These copies don’t have the restriction of having to show photo ID or having to be kin to the person as is required to obtain a certified copy. With these changes we are better safe guarding your personal information.

We will also be sending several of our plat books off to be restored and preserved. Some of our older plats are on paper instead of linen cloth. The paper plat books are in need of repair. We are sending them to a company who specializes in preservation of historical documents. We are also having the plat books that are on linen cloth put into new binders to help protect them. The Register of Deeds has an automation and preservation fund that is used for such projects.